3. How did you arrive at the final, recommended management zones?

Following a 12-week consultation on our original proposed zones, we have made adjustments to the zones (taking some proposed stretches out, adding other stretches in and making minor local boundary changes).

5. What about the people’s ‘right to roam’ under the Land Reform Act?

“Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives everyone statutory access rights to most land and inland water. People only have these rights if they exercise them responsibly byrespecting people’s privacy, safety and livelihoods, and Scotland’s environment.”

The rights granted under the Land Reform Act cover non-motorised access (walking, cycling, horse riding, canoeing etc) and those rights no longer apply if you do not act responsibly.

6. Doesn’t this prevent access?

We see these recommendations as a way toencourage access, whether you choose to visit the Park to camp or not.

People come to our lochshores for many reasons (to kayak, to swim, to walk or simply to enjoy a picnic). The volume of camping and antisocial behaviour is preventing other people from enjoying these locations and/or taking part in different recreation activities. The current situation already badly affects people’s ability to access these areas.

7. Does this mean I can’t ‘wild camp’ in the National Park?

“…lightweight, done in small numbers and only for two or three nights in any one place.”

The type of problem camping that takes place on our popular lochshores does not fit this description.

The Scottish Outdoor Access Code goes onto say that ‘wild camping’ should be done responsibly by ensuring you ‘leave no trace’which the Code describes as:

• taking away all your litter• removing all traces of your tent pitch and of any open fire (follow the guidance for lighting fires)• not causing any pollution

The recommendations we’ve made extend to an area that equates to 3.7% of the National Park – within the zones camping will be allowed in designated areas (by permit) or in campsites. The remaining area of the National Park is available for wild camping as defined in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

8. Isn’t education enough?

Our approach has always been, and will continue to be, education-led. Encouraging respect and enjoyment of the Park is the cornerstone to our approach to making the visitor experience here great.

The issues we continue to experience on our busiest lochshores demonstrate that despite our significant and ongoing efforts to positively encourage responsible camping we are still seeing entrenched behaviours that are degrading our lochshores, damaging the visitor economy and that put people off visiting the Park.

9. Isn’t existing legislation enough?

Following the 12-week consultation, and in light of work with Police Scotland and their own consultation response, we have amended the byelaws we are recommending today.

Enforcing existing legislation around antisocial behaviour and damage to the environment already happens in the Park.
This is a complex area but in principle, to enforce existing laws:

an individual incident needs to fall within criminal law for the police to enforce. Not all irresponsible behaviour is criminal behaviour.

it needs to be witnessed and corroborated, with the perpetrators identified

the quality of evidence needs to be very high

it takes significant resources to pursue through the courts

In addition to the 9000 hours of ranger patrolling that takes place in the Park to talk informally to visitors and encourage responsible behaviour, through Operation Ironworks (our joint rural policing initiative with Police Scotland) we have 800 hours of police patrolling over the busy summer months. This means we have resources to enforce existing laws relating to antisocial behaviour and there have been a number of successful and high profile prosecutions for serious violent incidents. Despite this antisocial behaviour still happens and causes a disproportionate impact on the environment, and other people (whether that’s other visitors or local residents/businesses).

We would rather not be seeing any criminal behaviour or prosecutions for antisocial behaviour in the Park.

Based on our experience on east Loch Lomond, we believe that a suite of measures (including regulatory approaches like byelaws) will help deter and prevent these behaviours. The byelaws we’re recommending will also strengthen our ability to deal with other problems such as chopping down trees and damage caused by firewood collection.

We agree that byelaws should be a last resort. However, having managed these issues for many years we believe this step is now absolutely necessary in some areas of the National Park. We wouldn’t propose byelaws lightly, but the evidence gathered each season demonstrates that we need to take action. We need byelaws not just to deter antisocial and irresponsible behaviour but to manage the volume of camping down to sustainable levels in these extremely busy locations. We are recommending using a permit system in some locations to manage the amount of camping.

Our experience of transforming east Loch Lomond gives us a solid case study of how a suite of measures including camping byelaws, and improved camping provision can encourage people to come to enjoy our lochshores responsibly and deter irresponsible behaviours. This short video explains a bit more:

11. What kind of camping facilities are you proposing?

There are already lots of campsites in the Park, we plan to improve camping provision further by investing in developing low-cost, informal camping facilities (like those at Sallochy Bay) in the management zones proposed. We are also proposing to introduce a camping permit system in some areas to help deliver pleasant lochshore camping experience where the volumes of camping can be managed to a sustainable level, that allows the ground time to recover.